PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, AT NO. S2 NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEiS, EDITOR. 



VOL,. X. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 5, 1831. 



NO. 12. 



^©sasawsracsiiieacQsrQa 



THE NEW ENGLAND SYLVA. 



Tlie rapiJ career in which the Republic of the 

 United States has attained its present elevated ranli 

 in the scale of nations, is unparallelled, and itsaccel- 

 eratcil und continued advancement excites a deep 

 interest in the various parts of the civilized world. 

 But there is nothing which seems more fatally to 

 threaten a weakening, if not an entire dissolution of 

 the strength of this nation, than the sensible decay of 

 its wooden walls, when, either by time, neglig-ence 

 or fortuitous causes, our present navy shall be 

 worn out or impaired. It is less surprising, there- 

 fore, that the inijiolitic dissolution of our timber or 

 forest trees has been suffered ; but a dispropor- 

 tionate spreading of tillage, has caused the [U'odi- 

 gious havoc, made upon all those goodly woods 

 and forests, which our prudent ancestors left stand- 

 ing for the ornament and benefit of their country. 

 And this devastation is now become so universal, 

 to supply furnaces, glasshouses, factories, &c, with 

 fuel, ihat,u niess some auspicious expedient offer 

 it^i If, and means be seriously and speedily resolved 

 u|Hii,, fur a future store, one of the most glorious 

 uiiil considerable bulwarks of this nation will, 

 williiii a few centuries, be totally extinct. 



From the impolitic waste and universal sloth 

 among us, we should be reminded, that such woods 

 as do yet remain entire, might be carefully pre- 

 srm (1, and such as are destroyed, sedulously re- 

 p;ii ril. It is what all, who are owners of land, can 

 participate in. There is no part of husbandry 

 which men more commonly fail in, neglect, and 

 have cause to repent of, than that they did not 

 seasonably begin to plant trees, without which, 

 they can neither expect fruit, ornament or delight 

 from their labors. Men seldom plant trees till they 

 begin to be wise, that is, till they grow old, and 

 find by experience the prudence and necessity of 

 it. When Ulysses, after a ten years' absence, was 

 rcliinied from Troy, and found his aged father in 

 the field planting trees, ho asked him, ' Why, 

 being now so far advanced in years, he woidd jiut 

 himself to the fatigue and labor of planting that, of 

 which he was never likely to enjoy the fruits ?' 

 The good old man, taking him fora stranger, gently 

 replied — ' I plant against my son Ulysses comes 

 home.' The application is obvious, and is instruc- 

 tive both to old and young. 



Independent of ornamenting the earth and of 

 furnishing us with timber and fuel, forests arrest 

 the progress of impetuous and dangerous winds ; 

 maintain the temperature of the air ; diminish ex- 

 treme cold, and regulate intense heat ; oppose the 

 formation of ice, and shelter the earth from the 

 scorching rays of the sun : produce an abun- 

 dance of water in the streams, and oppose a barrier 

 to washing away or imdermining their baid<s ; 

 ))reserve and enrich the soil on hills and mountains ; 

 discharge the electricity of the atmosiibere and 

 serve as laboratories for purifying the air we 

 lireatlie. 



The trees of our country recall the idea of it in 

 the most forcible manner, wherever we meet them ; 

 and are often the first objects that attract the atten- 

 tion of those who have been long absent from their 

 native land, and who, on their return, pour out 



their genuine effusions of joy on beholding them. 

 We are aware that many an Ainerican has sighed 

 under the shade of the banana for a sight at the vil- 

 lage cbn, the well known oak, or the unchanged pine 

 of New England. We are told of a young Indian, 

 Pontaveri from Otaheite, who, amidst the splendor 

 of Paris, regretting the simple beauty of his native 

 island, sprang forward at the unexpected sight of a 

 banana tree in the Garden of Plants, embraced it, 

 while his eyes were bathed in tears, and exclaim- 

 ing with a voice of rapture — ' Ah ! tree of my na- 

 tive country !' seemed by a delightful illusion of 

 sensibility, to imagine himself, for a moment, trans- 

 ported to the land which gave him birth. 



It seems hardly possible lor any mind to be so 

 debased as to be insensible of the cfiects of Nature, 

 whose vegetable charms become more endeared to 

 us as our age and reflection increa.se. A more 

 delightful cabinet of Natural History can scarcely 

 be found, than the forest or plantation affords. li 

 offers matter for contemplation of the most agree- 

 able kind, which varies still as seasons revolve ; and 

 as every tree and shrub has its peculiar inhabitants, 

 we have at the saiiie time a collection of animal 

 and vegetable wonders, sufficient to occupy all the 

 leisure which our economical duties allow us. 

 Every tree we plant adds to the entertainment, and 

 we prepare for future years, for ourselves, our 

 friends, our country and our successors. 



From the foregoing considerations, the under- 

 signed has commenced preparing a work, to be 

 entil'^d the New England Sylva ; to contain the 

 istory and description of all the important species 

 of forest trees growing in New England ; to treat 

 of their uses and application to the arts, and" the 

 mode of culture and propagation ; illustrated by 

 plates. 



It will be his object to attract attention to the 

 peculiarities of each tree by noticing the allegori- 

 cal allusions and anecdotes of the ancients, the 

 harmony of the poets, the observations of the 

 physicians, and the reflections of the moralists of 

 all ages. Morality, however, of a glooniy cast, 

 will be avoided ; for his wish is to give the work, 

 ike the subject, a smiling aspect. 



The practical part of his undertaking will em- 

 brace the most approved modes of culture and 

 propagation, with directions for laying out planta- 

 tions, and such other remarks on their utility and 

 economy, as directly concern the great mass of 

 the community. In regard to the form and size 

 of the work it is indefinitely determined. It will 

 nake its appearance as soon as can be found prac- 

 ticable. D.J. BROWNE. 



Boston, Sept. 1831. 



GREEN CORN STALKS. 



Soulh Boston, Sept. 29, 1831. 



Mr Fessenden — I have been accustomed from 

 my childhood to the use of green corn stalks, as 

 a food for milch cows; and sh.dl probably continue 

 the use of them myself, so long as I keep cows 

 and raise corn ; because I am confident I can give 

 them no kind of green food so good, either for 

 their milk, or their flesh, unless it be green corn 

 in the milk. This season, the feed in my pasture 

 had got rather short, and the milk somewhat di- 

 minished, before I commenced feeding my cows 



with stalks. Till the last week, they have been 

 fed with them ever since they wen; fit to cut, say 

 about six or eight weeks, to the manifest advan- 

 tage of their milk. It did not dinnuish till the 

 latter part of the time, when the stalks bad nearly 

 perished. In the course of the time, I have repeat- 

 edly had occasion to remark how well their milk 

 holdout. And yesterday, upon inspection, I was 

 led to remark, that they bad also perceptibly gain- 

 ed flesh in the time. They are now in after feed 

 ' up to their eyes,' with an increase of milk again; but 

 not so great, as when they fed upon the green suc- 

 culent stalks. I cannot be mistaken in this state- 

 ment, as the morning's rnilk has been regularly 

 measured and sold ; though I have not been in- 

 duced to ascertain the exact increase and dimi- 

 nution, upon exchange of feed. Even now the 

 cows will leave their grass, to nibble among the 

 naked remains of the cornfield ; so very fond are 

 our neat cattle of every part of this invaluable 

 vegetable, the root only excepted, while the sweet 

 sap remains in it. 



For this reason, when we begin to feed cow^ 

 with stalks, we must feed them to the full. They 

 will then lie quietly down, and ruminute upon the 

 subject. And if they get but little water, their 

 milk will not suffer much in quantity or quality. 

 When they once gpt the taste of stalks, they iimst 

 be satisfied or they will stand all day impatiently 

 watching the cornfield, if they do not break into it ; 

 and setting up a clamorous bellowing, at the sight 

 of every himian being. ^-JJidess compelled by press- 

 ing hunger theyiwJUJKtH^''''^.^^"'' "^ •''•^ labor 

 of getting their living. They" will neither eat grass 

 nor drink water, so long as they expect anything 

 they like better. My rule is to give them as many 

 stalks as they will eat up clean. Titis may be as- 

 certained in a few days by careful oliservation. 

 They should be CihI regularly morning and after- 

 noon. And a cow of common size will eat a good 

 armful a day. They will refuse the leaves and the 

 tassel, or blossom, after they have become dead dry. 

 But on the ground where seven cows and much of 

 the time, a yoke ofoxen have been fed through the 

 stalk season, I can hardly find a bit of stalk six 

 inches long ; although an unusual proportion were 

 barren stalks, of large size, and cut close to the 

 ground. I am n)ore and more confirmed every 

 year, in the belief, that it is far more jirofitable to 

 feed stalks green, out of the field, than to cme and 

 house them. If well cured I know tliey make ex- 

 cellent fodiler. And in bundles, they are very con- 

 venient to bait oxen with away from home. But it 

 requires much labor to secure them in good order. 

 They are very susceptible of injury from bad wea- 

 ther. And unless compelled by hunger rattle will 

 eat only the leaves, and the slender part of the dry 

 stalk. 



I ought to apologize for the unintended length 

 of this article, which I should not have written, but 

 from a deep conviction that the communication of 

 your correspoiident from Newton was calcidated 

 to mislead in what I consider a very important item 

 of riu'al economy. In a scarcity ofgrass feed, green 

 stalks are of great value. They come in the most 

 critical part ofthe grass season. They are very 

 easily and cheaply raised, by large quantities, in 

 drills for f-een fodder or dry, after an early drought, 



